There's a story that, when Van Gogh committed suicide, his landlord in Arles was furious. It was bad enough that he had to put up with the crazy artist who's rent was uneven at best (Van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime) but the lunatic had painted all over his walls. In addition to everything else, now he was going to have to pay for all these crazy drawings to be painted over.
In the 20th Century there was another artist, Cy Twombly. He did significantly better than Van Gogh. (At a Southeby's auction in May, a page full of scribbles done by him in 1971 over housepaint on a piece of card about 16 by 20 inches sold for a little over $2 and a quarter million.) Twombly died a couple of years ago, and one would think the price would be significantly elevated as a result, but his work has sold in the millions for years.
For $2,285,000 this too could be yours.
Twombly was originally from Lexington, Virginia, where I live now, and he maintained a home here where he would spend anywhere from a quarter to half the year. The rest of his time was generally spent in Italy, where he preferred people thought he lived full time. All the same, he had a nice home here and even rented a local storefront as a studio, where he would work.
When he died in July of 2011, the gallery and lawyers swooped in. They had his assistant seal the studio, and strictly forbade any photos of the place. I nonetheless was fortunate enough to befriend his assistant, and did a piece for WDBJ in Roanoke on Twombly of which I am unnaturally proud. (The link has long since aged out of the system, I'm sorry to say. I have it on tape still -- yes, actual, physical tape -- and should digitize and upload it here sometime.)
Butch, his assistant, let me into the studio, and we filmed his interview there. I was forbidden to shoot the studio, but I stood Butch so that in the background, on the wall, were marks ... the paint that had smeared off the edge of the canvas Twombly had tacked to the walls as he worked.
Some time later, the gallery people took everything away, and the storefront has been available for rent for months now. And for all that time, I have meant to call the agent and ask to be let in, just so I could photograph those marks. A part of me wanted to do it for posterity, and a part of me thought they might be interesting abstract artworks in and of themselves.
But as I have gone past in the last few days, workers have appeared within ...
Shot today with my iPhone as I passed.
I fear the tragedy of Arles is being repeated. A new owner has been found, and the last marks of Cy Twombly (you can see some quite clearly to the right of the ladder on the right) will be gone. Frankly, I never could quite think of how to start the conversation with the realtor.
Once again, I must learn: when I have these ideas, I need to act.
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